Friday, March 13, 2009

Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos and Ushaw

Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, the head of the Vatican commission Ecclesia Dei, has written in a letter to Leo Darroch, the head of Una Voce International, saying how pleased he is about the forthcoming Latin Mass Society training conference for priests at Ushaw. The full text can be read here. He writes:

I am particularly pleased to know that the course planned for the month of April will be held at Ushaw College, a distinguished seminary which has served the dioceses of Northern England for over 200 years.

My hope is that the course at Ushaw College will be a further step in the implementation of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum and thus will manifest our Holy Father`s conviction that "the two forms of the usage of the Roman Rite can be mutually enriching"

Having spent five years at Ushaw I get a shiver down my spine to read these words and think that Ushaw College will be the site for this initiative. There are still a few places available.

Truly, I would not believe the Gospel unless the authority of the Catholic Church impressed me.

St Augustine: Contra epistolam Manichaei 5.6

“The usus antiquior should be a standard element of the cultural capital of all Latin Rite Catholics since it so effectively resists secularism and satisfies the post-modern hunger for coherent order, beauty and an experience of self-transcendence.”